RUPAUL

Body confidence, being your true self, and learning to enjoy being alone... just some of the things that came up when Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall sat down for a chat with the world’s most famous drag queen.

- Jade Thirlwall

It is 5:30pm on a Thursday evening in the UK when RuPaul Charles and Jade Thirlwall jump on a video call. RuPaul rocks up first. It is morning where he is, in California, and they are experiencing terrible wildfires. Minutes later, Jade appears. Underneath her profile picture, it says Norma—she is accidentally logged in using her mum’s account.

“Here you are!” shouts RuPaul. “Sorry, I have got no idea why I am signed in as my mum,” says Jade. RuPaul laughs hysterically. Their conversation takes place as he is preparing to launch the second season of Drag Race UK on the BBC. As fans will know, Jade was a guest judge on the first series and is a huge supporter of the show.

The UK version may be a relatively new phenomenon, but the franchise was born in 2009. It has now clocked up 12 seasons in the US, and in 2018 The New York Times suggested it was “the most radical show on TV”. There are multiple international versions (it launched in Canada in 2020) and even yearly RuPaul’s DragCon events.

For the uninitiated, it is a fabulous hybrid of reality TV and talent contest, where drag queens compete in various challenges. RuPaul, his friend Michelle Visage and guest judges (including Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga) adjudicate the catwalk finale, before a lip-sync battle commences between the bottom two contestants. In September, Ru won his fifth consecutive Emmy award for Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Competition Program.

Jade and RuPaul first met at DragCon in LA in 2017. She later posted on Instagram that he had inspired her as a performer, “whilst giving me the confidence in myself I never knew I had”. And the rest is history.

So we put Jade in the hot seat, getting her to ask every nosy question we have always wanted answering...